


Woodsmoke and Sunlight

by Miki_and_company



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, Camp Counselor AU, Camping, M/M, Rivalry, Slow Burn, characters with arcs, look inside for side pairings - Freeform, rivals to friends to lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-06-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 00:58:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10933665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miki_and_company/pseuds/Miki_and_company
Summary: If there was one thing in life that Lance knew and liked, it was camp Altea.Since childhood, it was a familiar place where he could shine and feel like he belonged.Even as a counselor, he had a special place in the camp.However, he begins to question this place when he is placed together with some newbie, an aloof guywho somehow manages to one-up him in every possible way.He has no choice: he must learn to work with him.





	1. Welcome to Camp Altea

**Author's Note:**

> Side or implied pairings:  
> Allura/Shiro  
> Unrequited Lance/ Allura

Lance couldn’t help but smile when he crossed the gates of the summer camp, for the third year in a row. And the ninth year in total. The place was so familiar by now, and the day was beautiful. Everything, from the scratching sound of his car on the gravel road, to the gently waving shadow of tree leaves on the sun bleached “welcome” sign, everything made him happy. This place, with its beautiful lake and its dozens of kids of all ages was his home away from home. He parked the car hastily, impatient to go find his friends and coworkers in the counselor dormitory before heading straight for a swim, as he did every year.

He met Coran right outside of the administration building, a clip board in hands, busied with the organisation of counselor prep week (and probably the whole summer while he was at it).

Despite his heavy luggage, Lance rushed to him.

“Hey Coran! Nice seeing you again! Spent a nice year? I did, but, let’s be honest, I’m glad to be back. Where is Allura? I heard she got promoted to coordinator this year, I HAVE to congratulate her. Is there a lot of people who have arrived yet, or am I the first? There wasn’t many cars in the parking, so I guess I’ll have to wait a while. Briefing at 2, as usual, I suppose?”

“Yes, everything as usual, Lance. It is, however, nice to see you again indeed. If I’m not wrong, Allura should be in the cafeteria.”

“Thanks man, you’re the best,” Lance said, giving Coran a tap on the shoulder and heading for the counselor dormitories.

He just needed to put down his stuff, then he could go in the cafeteria to wait until all the counselors arrived.

The dormitories were a two-story building, men on the bottom, women on top, where the counselors could keep their belongings and escape the promiscuity of children’s tents one night out of two in favor of the promiscuity of a young adult’s common room. Needless to say, there wasn’t a lot of privacy around camp, but for Lance this didn’t make much of a difference from home. In fact, except for a few specific times, he preferred this colloquial sense of business to a formal privacy.

There were only three beds taken in the men’s dormitory when Lance walked in, but, lack of luck, one of these two beds was the one he had claimed to himself the last two years and had hoped to claim once again. The culprit was still sitting there, staring at his hands. Lance had never seen this guy before, so he must have been a newbie.

It was annoyance at first sight. Having his bed stolen, Lance could have forgiven easily someone for that, however, it did put him in just enough of an irked mood to look at the guy’s mullet (???why?!?...would?!?Anyone!!! want...! A mullet?!?) as well as his bike gloves and his resting bitch face to decide that it was a douchebag. He put down his luggage on another bed with a sigh, and started unpacking his stuff.

“So, you’re new here I reckon?”

The guy lifted his head, seemingly surprised. A quick look-around confirmed that it was indeed to him that Lance was talking, so he nodded.

“You?” he asked, not sure what he was supposed to say.

“I’ve been a counselor here for two years, not to mention a camper for six. So, you can say I know my way around,” said Lance, trying to be nice (yet firm), but succeeding more in sounding antipathetic to the newcomer.

He decided to shut up instead, just hoping he could manage to ignore his co-worker until his unrequited infuriation washed away, mended by the sun and the cheerful spirit of camp. Once his stuff was unpacked, he walked out of the dormitories and in the still rather empty cafeteria. There, sat at one of the colorfully painted long wooden tables that lined the walls, Allura was chatting with Shiro over a pile of paperwork. That’s right, Allura was a coordinator now. She no longer took care of a single group, but organised activities and supervised the counselors for the six girls’ tents the camp sheltered. She ranked equally to Shiro, who had the same title but with the boys’ tents, and was, by definition, Lance’s superior. Lance shrugged at the thought. It was only fair, given how Allura was three years older than him, had been a camper for as long as it was possible to be one, a counselor as soon as she could, and also (non-negligibly) the camp founder’s daughter. Still, he was used to flirting and hanging out with her, and it would feel weird to have her as a boss.

“Hey, how’s it going?” he asked, making the two busy workers break their discussion.

“Oh, hey Lance,” Shiro greeted him.

“Coming here went well?” Allura asked politely.

“Yeah, it went amazing. The weather was nice and there was no traffic at all. What are you working on?”

“Well, I’m glad to hear it,” Allura smiled, “We are working on the animation. You are going to like this year’s theme, Lance.”

“What is it?”

“Well, I’m not supposed to tell you until the meeting…” Allura pondered.

“Come oooooooon,” Lance whined. “please?”

Allura looked at Shiro.

“Don’t tell him. He says he wants to know, but you know him, he is fond of surprises.”

“That’s true…” Allura grinned deviously as Lance was letting out an unconvincingly dramatic “noooooooo!”

He tried to peek at the sheets full of notes, but Allura took them away before he could.

“You’re incorrigible”

“You love it,” Lance smiled.

Allura rolled her eyes.

“Let’s say I oscillate between annoyance and mild endearment.”

“Exactly, you love it.”

It’s at that moment that Lance heard commotion coming from the kitchen. From it exited a familiarly bulky guy, wiping his hands on an apron. At the sight, Lance’s smile reached to his ears and he ran with abandon towards him, jumping in for a hug.

“Hunk!”

“Lance!”

They held tight for a while, Hunk holding Lance a foot above the ground with as much ease as if he had been a pillow. When Hunk finally put him down, Lance looked at him with a question mark in his eyes.

“Wait…Hunk…why are you wearing an apron? Are you helping out the cook again?”

Hunk looked simultaneously embarrassed and proud.

“Well, uh, I’m the cook this year,” he said. “I didn’t know until a week ago, sorry for not telling you, but the last cook broke his entire leg and will not be able to work this summer, so Coran called me to replace him, since I am already familiar with the kitchen and the camp’s menu.”

Lance felt conflicting feelings about his trusty co-counselor no longer being there to watch over the kids with him. He had taken for granted that he would be paired with Hunk, and so this change brought a fair share of uncertainty to Lance’s mind.

“Well, congrats Hunk!” Lance said. “At least I can rest knowing that the food you’ll serve us will be more than edible.”

“I’m sorry we can’t be together again this year, but we’ll see each other often enough. Besides, I’m sure you’ll get along famously with anyone you end up paired with.”

“You know it,” Lance smiled, slowly getting used to the idea.

It was true that he would still see Hunk three or four times a day; at each meal, plus after the children’s curfew, when all the staff got together in the cafeteria to enjoy their only break of the day.

Slowly, the camp counselors started arriving in the cafeteria, some old and some new. Lance greeted them all cordially, exchanged banter with some of the returning crew and waited excitedly for 2 pm, when the first meeting would kick-start the training week and announce the summer’s theme.

It would also announce the tent assignments, and Lance would know who his new co-counselor was.

There were eight tents for boys, and eight tents for girls, each dealing with a different age group of kids between 8 and 16. Counselors tended to be between 18 and 25, as well as full-time students. Lance was 20, in his last two years he had taken care of the Corsairs, aged 10-11, and the Mateys, the youngest group, aged 8-9. They were fun groups, full of energy. Hunk liked to joke that if Lance and the kids got along so well, it was because they had the same mental age. Lance firmly denied it. Often minutes before doing something stupid to impress Allura.

Speaking of Allura, her new silver white hair was amazing and Lance couldn’t believe he missed the opportunity to compliment her on it. It matched Shiro who…

Wait a minute.

Lance shook his head in disbelief. Allura had always functioned well with Shiro, but he had no other proof that they were flirting with each other, or even that one of them saw the other that way. If there really was something between them, though…

Lance hated to admit it, but they would make a good pair. Both were kickass, wholly dedicated to their cause and fair leaders. Also, both were very attractive. This still made him feel a bit jealous, though. Allura had been his main crush since what felt like forever. He was in love with camp Altea, and Allura was its beautiful princess. His affection for the two meshed into one, infatuated dedication.

He remembered the first year he had ever come here, and had gotten so homesick he cried his way to the infirmary, and was about to be sent home when a fourteen-year-old Allura had walked in and he immediately tried to play it cool, to her greatest annoyance. His crush on her motivated him to stay a little more, and through the way she spoke cherishingly about the camp, Lance gave it a second chance and went in a few days from hating it to loving it so much he had harassed his parents every single year to send him here again.

“Attention everyone,” Allura said while clapping her hands. “The introductory meeting will start very soon. Please sit down.”

The chatter that was going on calmed down as the young adults sat on the benches of the cafeteria tables. Lance was sat in the front, Close to Allura, Shiro and Coran. Shiro smiled at him while Coran began his speech.

“Greetings, returning and aspiring counselors. For those who do not know me, I am Coran, the principal administrator of Camp Altea and its most gorgeous one, at that.”

There were a few chuckles in the room.

“Your mission, young paladins of summer, is to become a guide and role model for dozens of lucky youngsters who come here to grow up under the light of nature and happiness.”

He paused dramatically, eliciting a few more chuckles from the crowd.

“Do you think yourselves up to the task?”

A series of nods and yesses came from the crowd, but Lance decided to let out a loud “Woohoo!” that received a couple of weird stares, but also an approving gesture from Coran.

This was all very cheesy, but the cheese was a part of the fun for Lance.

“We’ll begin this meeting by presenting the administrative staff, then by doing a quick tour of the facilities. We will give you an opportunity to showcase yourself with a few bonding exercises, then we unveil this summer’s wonderful theme before assigning you your groups and partner for the summer, according to the wishes you have made during the interview as well as our knowledge of your previous experiences. By then, it will be time for dinner. We will spend the rest of the week trying out the activities, bonding further, and shaping you into the perfect counselors you ought to be. But before, I’d like to let Allura right here speak a word.”

He gestured towards Allura, who solemnly stood in front of the thirty-something pair of eyes looking at her.

“For those who do not know me, I am Allura, coordinator of the girls’ section, as well as the daughter of the man who founded Camp Altea thirty years ago. Sadly, my father passed away four years ago. However, thanks to the dedication of his loyal friend Coran, the man who is a second father to me, we kept his dream going steadily ever since. We have no other goals than to make the children who come here feel like they belong, like they have the power to make their lives as fulfilled and loving as they can. I believe in each and everyone of you, those for whom it is the first time setting foot in this camp, as well as those who know every crook and nook of this place.”

She shot a glare at Lance as she said the last part of that sentence.

“I believe you can perpetuate the spirit of this camp. But enough motivational talk. I think it is time to present to you those who will help you in your journey here. You have already met Coran, who is really the most important person here, even if, legally speaking, I am the head of this camp. I work as coordinator, this is my first year as such, but I believe it will not be a challenge for me. One for whom being coordinator is nothing new is my partner here, Shiro.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you all,” Shiro said.

“As a cook, we have our dear friend and former counselor Hunk, taking over for our regular cook, but with as much, if not more, skill.”

“Hey,” Hunk waved from the back, still standing in the kitchen doorway.

“We also have an equipment coordinator, in charge of making sure that all the equipment is well-stored and well-functioning, sadly, she will not be joining us until next week due to familial trouble. Until then, Shiro and I will share the duty of taking care of the equipment. I hope you will also make an effort in valuing the material. Apart from this, you are the main staff of this camp, you will be asked to partake in a variety of chores, but your main duty is to look over the safety and pleasure of your assigned group. Without further Ado, I invite you all to join us in a tour of the camp.”

The group stood up and started chatting a bit again. Lance had nothing to gain from making a tour of the camp, given how he knew it more than the back of his own hand, but it was mandatory and so he followed the group. The cafeteria, the counselors’ dormitory, the administration building, the great clearing, the beach with its docks, swimming area and many embarkations, the sixteen tents divided in two sections for the boys and the girls, the bathroom buildings, the infirmary under which were the showers, the four pavilions, the garage, the stables, the shooting range and a few other miscellaneous locations were all briefly explored. It was a fairly large camp, and in consequence had a lot to see.

Lance got bored quickly.

It eventually ended, to his greatest relief, and the counselors got instructed to go get into their swimsuits. Lance didn’t have to be asked twice. They were allocated a free swimming time for an hour, and he made the most of it. He couldn’t help but notice, though, the mullet guy from earlier being aloof and standing out from the group. He shook his head. He knew it, he knew that guy was not going to mingle well with everyone else, it could be read on his face. He wondered what went through the head of the idiot who hired him.

Then they played some games in groups of eight or nine to learn names, switching it up every once in a while until he was familiar with everyone’s name. Mullet guy’s name was Keith, but Lance was already accustomed to referring to him in his head as mullet-guy and wasn’t sure he wanted to change that.

After the preliminary bonding activities, everyone gathered again, in one of the pavilions this time.

Allura spoke.

“Now, the time that many of you were waiting for is here: we will reveal this summer’s theme. The theme of the summer is the one around which animation is centered, around which we make plays and Great Games and challenge our campers. Because you will be asked some involvement into crafting the narrative around the theme, I know for a fact that you want to know what it is. Can I get a drumroll please?”

The young adults sat on decrepit mats on the floor made a rumble with their hands hitting on the floor.

Allura lifted a small carboard panel on which was written the word “space” in bubbly letters surrounded by stars, trying with more or less success to recreate the NASA logo.

“This summer’s theme is Space!” she claimed proudly.

Everyone cheered, but especially Lance. This was way cooler than last year’s theme, Flora and Fauna. With this, they could stage epic plays and make up stories about aliens and it would just be great. He already saw himself playing space heroes for the kids, it gave him hope that this summer could be just as great as the last, even if Hunk wasn’t his partner, and even if there was something going on between Allura and Shiro.

He felt himself relaxing a bit, before remembering he still had to know who would be his partner this summer, and what age the kids he would be taking care of would be. This was the thing right up next. He prepared himself.

He didn’t care who he was paired with, most people he knew he got along well with, and there was no one with whom he was more close than Hunk, Shiro or Allura. Besides, he trusted them to pair him with someone good. No, the question was more about what kids he would get. He liked the younger ones, but he was starting to get curious about the older groups, the 12+ ones. They had a wider range of activities, and their themed story was pushed further, unlike with the younger kids, they could acknowledge things like romance and violence (while still having a narrative wholesome enough for the whole family). He wouldn’t complain if he ended up looking over the Pioneers or the Rangers, who were between 14 and 16.

Allura began by assigning the girl’s groups, and Lance used that time to ponder over the possibilities open to him, he genuinely didn’t know where Shiro had assigned him. When it came time to assign the boys’ groups, Shiro started from the youngest to the oldest. Halfway through, Lance realised he was being assigned to an older group. Nice, he thought. He had honestly lost track of who had been assigned and who hadn’t, so it wasn’t until there were only two tents left that he realized mullet-guy hadn’t been named yet. Or, maybe? He didn’t think so. He was starting to worry. I mean, come on, anyone but him, right?

Neither of them were assigned to the Pioneers. Either Lance had paid too little attention or he was being paired with mullet-guy right now.

“And finally,” Shiro said, “With the Rangers we have Lance and Keith.”

Lance had to swallow a swear. He looked over at Keith who looked back at him with an unreadable expression, so Lance smiled at him. Keith looked away. Really? He can’t even smile back? What an asshole, Lance thought.

An asshole he’ll have to spend most of the summer with, Lance realized.


	2. Training day

The simultaneously best and worst thing about Camp Altea was the arctic power.

What was the arctic power, you ask?

No, it wasn’t a sex act consisting of shoving ice cubes up your ass, you can close that urban dictionary tab. 

It was a custom, probably enforced by Coran, that consisted in waking up with a healthy bowl of morning dip, a race between the 12+ tents, of who can, upon being woken up, jump into their swimsuit and run to the swimming area the fastest, then do a brief lap before breakfast. It was brutal, but efficient. With several years of training under his belt, Lance knew what to expect.

During prep week, it was everyone against everyone, in the span of a few days it inevitably became a complete brawl.

Obviously, there were a few rules. No putting on your swimsuit before the wake-up call. No running down the dormitory stairs. No pushing or roughhousing. No skinny dipping. Bringing your towel was mandatory, and you could not run barefoot or in flip flops.

All counselors had been warned beforehand of the arctic power, but those who had never experienced it before stood no chance. They would not wake up half an hour beforehand to get completely naked in their sleeping bags, they would not have their swimsuit ready in their hands to put on in one fell swoop when the alarm would ring at 7 am. They would not have brought crocs, the tested and best thing to put on rapidly before a mad sprint on dirt and gravel through the wooden path leading to the beach.

There was no loyalty, there was no mercy, there was no honor. There was only the mad desire to be the first setting foot on the beach, the designated finish line of this mad race.

This was an aspect of the camp that Lance had missed as a counselor for the younger kids. At first, everyone hated it, hated this barbaric waking up ritual. But the sense of competition was strong, and soon enough inevitably took over most folks.

So, when the alarm rang, Lance was up on his feet and in his swimming trunks before any other counselor had even fully realized where they were. He had his towel ready, he just needed to slip on his crocs…

He had one croc on his foot, the other was nowhere to be seen. He crouched to look under his bunk and finally found it, slipped it on with hurry and was out as most of the other guys were putting on their swimsuit. In normal circumstances, he could sleep until noon and would whine loudly at anyone’s attempt to wake him up, but this was muscle memory. It was familiar and fun, and had for him past way beyond the complaining stage. He had taken time to warm up to the practice, but once he did, it was all or nothing.

He was running in the fresh breeze of the morning, or rather lightly jogging. He had enough of a jumpstart on others to feel confident about winning this. He heard a rustle behind him and turned around, curious to know who had managed to catch up to him.

It was mullet-gu—uh, Keith, his face showing nothing but focus, sprinting at a speed that would make him rapidly catch up to Lance, even if he still was far behind. After being dumbfounded for half a second, Lance sprinted with all his might the last hundred meters leading up to the beach, with a determination he usually only had by the end of the week.

He stepped on the beach only a second in front of Keith, surging in front of a surprised fully clothed group composed of Shiro, Allura and Coran. Allura looked at her stopwatch, and nodded.

“Not bad for a first morning, not bad. It looks like you got challenged for once, Lance. Who is this?”

“That’s Keith,” Shiro answered. “We hired him to replace Hunk, remember?”

“Oh, yeah, you recommended him, I remember now. Well, Good job Keith, I can guarantee you did the best arctic power a first-timer ever had. You must be training a lot, no?”

“Yeah,” Keith said.

“Well, you two should probably go for a swim now,” Allura said as she worked towards greeting all the people flooding the gravelly beach, a bit confused and tired. There was one of the girls who was wearing her swimsuit inside-out. The look on her face made Lance giggle.

“Where is your towel, young man?” Coran suddenly asked, standing in front of Keith.

“My what?”

“Your towel.”

“I, uh, I forgot it?”

“Hm. I’ll let it slide because it’s your first time, but make sure to bring one tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir,” Keith said.

Coran nodded and walked away. This soothed Lance somehow, who was starting to feel threatened in his pride.

He went for a swim. It was early in the summer, so the water was still quite cold, but it didn’t bother him. It shook the very last remnants of sleepiness from his mind, and he felt good as he exited the water. Keith had only taken a quick dip, and was now dripping and shivering without a towel to dry himself. Lance hardly felt pity for him. They got back to the dormitory and put on clothes, then headed to the cafeteria for breakfast.

Lance ended up sat in front of Keith, who was eating cheerios without a word. As he buttered his toast, Lance asked,

“So, have you ever said a word longer than a syllable, or are you just THAT bored with this place?”

“Huh?” said Keith, lifting his head.

“Earth to Keith, we’re having a problem receiving a human interaction here.”

“Are you always this loud?” Keith said.

Lance lifted his hands as if to thank the heavens.

“Hallelujah, he has formed a full sentence.”

“Do you think you’re better than me because you’ve been here before?”

“No, I think I’m better than you because of your stupid haircut,” Lance said, half-joking.

“All right, glad we cleared that up,” Keith said, lowering his head once more to stare at the table.

“Oh, hey, come on, I was joking. Like, seriously, we’re partners, we should at least pretend to go along.”

Keith shrugged.

“This stunt you pulled this morning was impressive, but don’t get too cocky, I was rusty, it will be harder to beat me next time.”

“If you say so.”

“oookay. So banter-wise, you’re really a hopeless case.”

“I could say the same thing about you.”

“What did I do to you?”

“what did *I* do to you?” Keith retorqued.

Lance sighed.

“Fair enough. Let’s start this over from the beginning, shall we? Hi, I’m Lance, your new co-counselor. Nice to meet you.”

He held out his hand so Keith could shake it.

Keith took it with a forced smile, and shook it briefly.

“Hi, I’m Keith. I would like to inform you that I will most definitely beat you at the arctic power tomorrow.”

Lance took a shocked expression, then smirked.

“Game on,” he said.

Lance wasn’t sure what he had gotten himself into, but it could not be worse than the silent treatment. At least, if Keith was busy trying to beat him, they would have an excuse to interact with each other. This wasn’t going to be a smooth friendship, but a rivalry was definitely making them hurdle towards something. Hopefully a productive something.

The first day was dedicated to make counselors try out the water activities. This was easy as pie for Lance, who swam naturally like he was a mermaid. Several years of swimming classes and a formation to be a lifeguard will do that to you. He busied himself easily by teaching the groups of counselors the basic maneuvers of a canoe or a windsurf. Keith was decent, but Lance couldn’t help to use his every mistake as a counter-example, even going as far as to purposefully be confusing to him when they paired in a canoe. The guy was easier to tease than a ten-year-old girl at recess.

“I told you to paddle left, Keith.”

“I’m paddling left!”

“Not strong enough, we’re turning.”

“It’s because you’re paddling too hard!”

“I’m the paddle master, so, I can’t possibly be paddling too hard. You’re the one who has to follow me.”

“I thought YOU were supposed to be following ME.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

Keith doubled his paddle power, just because he was tired of arguing with Lance. Lance stopped his paddle in the water, making them do a sharp turn. Keith growled in frustration.

“You’re doing this on purpose!” he yelled, throwing impulsively his paddle in the water.

“I can’t believe it,” Lance said, as he watched Keith’s paddle gently float away in the wind-brought waves of the lake. “You actually threw your paddle.”

“I…” Keith realised, pausing his tantrum to contemplate the stupidity of his own gesture.

Lance laughed. The paddle was now just too far away to get while still in the canoe. Lance could theoretically steer the canoe correctly to get it back, but the sun was shining bright and he was staring to feel hot in his canoe, a little dip couldn’t hurt, could it?

“Hey, everyone!” he yelled, getting the attention of the other canoes. “My lovely partner here, in an impulsive fit, decided to throw away his paddle. I’d like to sincerely thank him, because now I have the opportunity to show you the next technique. Keith, please hold the left side of the canoe for me, please. The right left, this time.”

Keith obliged reluctantly, aware that all eyes were on them. Lance stood up in the canoe, making it shake a little.

“Here is how we jump out and climb back in a canoe. It’s the first step before practicing capsizing it. To jump out, I need a counter weight. Keith will press on the left side of the canoe, while I jump on the right. I’ll get his paddle, hand it to him, then he’ll do the counter weight again as I climb back in. It’s important that he push just the right amount to prevent the canoe from jiggling too much. An unauthorizedly capsized canoe is one that Shiro or Allura will yell at you for. Ready, Keith?”

Keith nodded.

Lance jumped.

The canoe stayed upside, even if it was swaying wildly, a mildly uncomfortable Keith on board. Lance, on the other hand, was getting refreshed by the cool water of the lake, a bit uncomfortable in his life vest, but still able to join Keith’s paddle with a few arm strokes. Going back, he handed the paddle back to Keith.

“Put it at the bottom of the canoe, next to mine.”

Keith obliged.

“Now!” Lance yelled. “The important part of getting back in the canoe is to imitate the whale crashing on the shore. Use your arm muscles to throw all your weight inside, then end on your back at the bottom of you canoe. Once your partner has stabilized the boat, you can crawl back to your seat and each take back your paddle. On the count of three,”

Lance put both his hand on the gunnel, looking at Keith.

“One, two, THREE!”

He jumped, somewhat startling Keith who barely managed to keep the canoe upright. Lance realised that he came terribly close to hitting his head on the left side gunnel of the embarkation, as he looked up with a smirk at a panting Keith. Sprawled at the bottom of the canoe, he knew he looked somewhat stupid, but his stunt was getting a few waves of applause from the other counsellors, and his grin an eyeroll from his partner. 1-0 for Lance, do not underestimate the man.

In the evening, there was a first gathering regarding the themed plays that the counsellors would put on for the intent of the kids and the teens. Shiro was responsible of the 8-12 plays, while Allura directed the 12-16 plays, that would be showed in the third pavilion.

“Here is the story,” she was explaining with a grin. “We are following the adventure of a young group of space heroes, roaming the galaxy in search of power crystals, crystals that protect the plants and animals of the different inhabited planets. However, an evil empire has started to steal the crystals, in the hope of making an invincible weapon to control the galaxy. Our heroes need to seize this weapon, defeat the evil empire, and restore the crystals where they belong.”

“Nice,” Lance commented.

“Thank you, Lance. Now, I already know that you will want to play the main hero, so that’s already something we don’t need to figure out. There is a role for everyone, we just need to figure it out. We need four other people on the hero team, does anyone want to volunteer?”

A couple of hands in the audience rose. Allura pondered, before taking two boys and two girls she thought would work. She then attributed some minor roles, of the inhabitants of the different planets and the minions of the main villain. When it came to attributing the role of Zarkon, the crystal-stealing king of the dark empire, she tapped on her clipboard with her pen a couple of times, looking around the room innocently.

“Mmmh…” she said, “How about Keith?”

Both Lance and Keith exclaimed a “what?”

Keith because he wasn’t sure why he was chosen to be the villain, Lance because he was upset at Allura for offering him such a big role.

“Yeah, sure, why not? He looks the part, all broody and determined. He’d make a great Zarkon. Are you in, Keith?”

“Um, sure,” he answered, not sure what to make of Allura’s comment.

Lance sighed.

“And you, Allura? Are you not going to give yourself a role to play?”

“Lance, you know it’s not customary for coordinators to be part of the plays.”

“Okay, but admit that you would make a great space princess.”

Allura sighed.

“We’ll see. Maybe I’ll make a cameo if you insist.”

“Yes!” Lance exclaimed.

They spent the rest of the evening going over the story, adding and removing details from the outline of the plot. They knew that in the end a lot of it would be improvised, but it didn’t hurt to know where they were going. Lance loved role-playing, and he stayed until curfew with Allura to discuss the story and begin to craft the background. He was basically the last one left when she called him unusually softly.

“Lance?” she said.

“Uh?” Lance answered, lifting his head from the star banner he was painting. “hey,” he smiled smugly.

Allura rolled her eyes.

“I heard from the others about your…interactions with Keith today.”

“Oh,” Lance said.

“Lance, what have you got against Keith?”

“I…nothing? We’re going along pretty well. Well, okay, not THAT well, but considering how he hardly talks to anyone, I’d say there is already progress.”

“Keith was warmly recommended by Shiro when our cook got hurt and transferring Hunk left a gap in our counsellor lineup. You know how I trust Shiro, so I’m sure Keith has great potential.”

“Well, he may have great potential, but he is still pretty stuck-up, if you ask me.”

“He is still warming up to the place. He’ll be integrated in no time. That’s why in part we paired him with you, Lance. Usually, there is no one better than you to make newcomers feel at home. But your behaviour with Keith is…unusual? That’s why I…I’m just asking, Lance. I just hope we didn’t make a mistake.”

Lance nodded, burdened with the feeling of having disappointed Allura. He himself wanted nothing more than to go along with Keith, but every time he was around the guy, he just lost all his chill. It was fun interacting with Keith. What felt a lot less fun was his impulse to just tease the guy, because that eyeroll and pout was just so much more inviting.

“You didn’t make a mistake,” he told Allura sternly. “You don’t have to worry about me or Keith. We’ll be fine. I might tease him a bit, but that’s just to break the ice. I don’t mean it. I mean, I’m perfectly fine with Keith, it’s not like he’s threatening me or anything, I’m the most competent counselor in this camp, and you know it. If I can’t handle him, then no one can. Just trust me.”

Allura looked at him a bit confused, not sure what he was getting at.

“Uh, all right then,” she said. “I trust you. Though now, it’s curfew and you should probably go to sleep.”

“Uh, yeah,” Lance said, looking at the clock. “Goodnight, Allura.”

“Goodnight, Lance.”


	3. Challenger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My update schedule may be irregular, but I update nonetheless. Trust me. These are just longer and more structured chapters than what I usually write, so it takes more time.

 

Lance was ready. The alarm was set to ring in three minutes, his crocs and towel were right here next to him and his trunks were in his hands, ready to be slipped on his body. Every second seemed to last a century, waiting for the alarm to officially take him out of slumber, for the adrenaline shot of the morning to prevent him from dozing off in his body-warm sleeping bag.

What a ridiculous thing, though, he could not sleep. He would not sleep. He needed to win the arctic power against Keith this morning.

The alarm caught him by surprise. With a gasp, he slipped on his swimming trunks and scrambled into his crocs, grabbing his towel. He had barely lost any time at all, he could still win this thing. He ran out of the dormitory, once again the first to do so.

He was just focused on doing his thing: running and reaching for the beach before anyone else. He would not be distracted. He could not be distracted. He heard running steps behind him. He did not turn. He sprinted. The steps got closer. He kept his eyes on the prize. A figure appeared next to him, running at a wild pace. It was Keith.

Now, he could not let him win. He rushed with energy he didn’t know he had. He did not manage to get ahead, but he did manage not to fall behind Keith. The two stepped on the beach as one, letting inertia guide their last uncontrolled steps once they knew their goal reached.

“Looks like it’s a tie!” Coran declared, as Allura was checking her stopwatch. The rest of the counselors were arriving on the beach, much quicker than yesterday already.

“Tomorrow,” Keith panted at Lance, threatening.

“In your dreams,” Lance panted back.

He was starting to feel like he couldn’t keep up all week without Keith winning the arctic power at least once. Dammit.

Today was dedicated to outdoors activities; climbing, horseback riding, forest low ropes course, Olympiads, orientation, archery and carbine shooting. Lance was good at all of them, even if to a lesser degree than water activities.

What he hadn’t accounted for was for Keith to be this enduring and agile. The guy breezed through the low ropes course as if gravity hadn’t been a thing, to Lance’s greatest annoyance. Hunk wasn’t good at low ropes course, and so Lance had never thought much of it, or felt compelled to be good at it. However, looking at Keith in full focus, controlling his momentum and velocity perfectly as to jump over or under obstacles, Lance felt a twinge of envy. He had to admit that it looked cool as heck.

“Did you ever do this before?”

Keith had just finished a short series of obstacles, and was running his hand through his hair as the beginning of a layer of sweat was making a few strands stick to his face.

“Why?” Keith smirked. “You think I’m doing well?”

“I never said that,” Lance retorted.

“but you were thinking it.”

“I was not.”

“You’re right,” Keith said. “I bet you are much better at this than I am, no? Why don’t you show me how it’s done?”

“I…I will,” Lance crossed his arms defiantly. “I’ll show you how it’s done.”

He couldn’t show Keith how it was done.

He got to the beginning of a course, prepared himself nervously as Keith was crossing his arms, looking at him with an expectant glare and a sideway grin, knowing full well Lance wasn’t going to ace this as much as he himself had. A few curious counselors were now joining his side, curious once again to see what the commotion was about. They had learned fast that whenever Lance was acting up, the show was about to get good.

“What are you waiting for?” Keith asked, as Lance was shifting nervously.

“Nothing, I was just making sure you were looking correctly,” Lance lied.

“My eyes are dead set on you. You can go whenever.”

“All right,” Lance said, taking a deep breath.

He ran towards the course; the first obstacle was a sort of uneven wooden ladder. He managed it pretty well, his tall limbs allowing him to skip several steps and jump down on the other side quickly. The second obstacle was balancing steps. He had to hold himself extremely tightly to the ropes in order to keep balance, and came near falling a couple of times, but apart from rope burns on the palms of his hands, he came out of it with dignity.

Hey, maybe the biker gloves thing was not so dumb after all.

The third obstacle was a clinging ladder, the kind that you hang yourself from with your arms to go from one side to the other. With his palms already hurting, he suffered all the way through. He had to pause for several seconds just to not fall off. Certain that he had heard a giggling from the group of bystanders watching him, he became determined to not stop anymore. He swung himself, rushing to the end of the obstacle, but his hands were done for. His right hand was trying to grasp the next bar as swiftly as it could, but it instead slipped and given how his left hand was mid-air, he fell on the ground a few feet below, sticking his landing painfully.

“Umphf!” was about the sound he made before deciding that at this point, his dignity may belong on the ground after all. He let his body fall on the dirty trail.

“Come on, get up,” a voice above him said.

“Ugh,” he answered.

“You all right?” Keith asked.

“M’fine,” Lance muttered.

Keith was offering up a hand to help Lance get up on his feet. Lance didn’t take it, because the only thing he would have allowed his hands to touch at that moment was ice. It did look a bit like he was snobbing Keith, a thing which he didn’t exactly rectify. Payback, bitch.

It didn’t help that their next activity was wall climbing. Keith was good at that, too. Lance skipped his turn, preferring to stay on the ground and help the others climb up. This sucked, because for what it was worth, Lance was pretty good at climbing. He had briefly held the time record for climbing the wall as a camper, only to be beaten days later by some jerk. Okay, the kid who beat him wasn’t a jerk, he was actually really nice, but it didn’t stop Lance from being bitter.

By the time they were trying out archery and carbine shooting, Lance was fully recovered. His smile reached up to his ears, knowing full well that in those activities, he could not embarrass himself.

Shiro went through the safety guidelines while Lance, who knew them by heart, fidgeted impatiently. When Shiro asked for four volunteers to try it out first, Lance shot his hand up. He got picked with a sigh. So did Keith. Of course.

“Alright, you can pick up your bow,” Shiro said, pacing behind them.

They had three arrows to fire. As soon as Shiro gave the fireaway, Lance shot his first one right on target, not bullseye, but that was par for the course for a first shot. He was the only one to have done so. Keith had missed, but was already prepping his second shot, apparently not having seen Lance’s exploit.

Lance frowned.

“Hey,” he threw at Keith.

“What?” Keith looked at him, slightly pissed off from having lost focus.

“You’re doing it wrong, dude.”

“I am not.”

“Yes you are.”

Keith sighed.

“Well, then, show me how I’m supposed to do it, sharpshooter.”

“You asked for it,” Lance smirked.

He took his second arrow, now assured that Keith would be looking at him. He knew he could do this, but his nervousness was making him shake a bit. This was ridiculous, but he didn’t want to embarrass himself once again. He checked his position carefully, trying to make sure he would hit bullseye.

“Is it going to be this year or…?”

“yeah, Yeah!” Lance retorqued.

He took the shot hastily. He missed.

He was about to throw a tantrum from frustration.

“Nice,” Keith commented sarcastically, before returning to his own shot.

Why? Why couldn’t he act _normally?_ Why did he have to boast? And most of all, why did he have to fail and make a fool of himself? He knew this camp, each of its crook and nook, and each of its activity, better than anyone else—except maybe Allura and Coran. So, tell him, why should this rando fished by Shiro—no offense to his judgement—had to come and just _mock_ him like this?

Lance knew he was acting like a child, but he couldn’t help it. He raised his bow, getting ready to shoot his last arrow.

At that moment, Shiro walked up to Keith, and corrected his position.

“Your elbow is too low, try like this,” he said.

Lance grinned internally. He knew that, it was the reason Keith’s first shot had missed. One point for him, even if it was a small one.

With a spite yielded focus that would have made emperor Palpatine proud, Lance fired his third arrow and hit bullseye. He walked off, head high, handing his bow to Shiro.

“Lance? Where are you going? We need to go get back the arrows.”

Oops. Godammit.

 

\--

That evening, Lance was on dishes duty with Hunk. Lance hated dishes duty, but since it gave him an opportunity to hang out with his friend, he did not complain as much as he would have otherwise.

Already damp kitchen towel in hand, he was drying the plates and silverware that Hunk handed him.

“Hunk?”

“Yeah?”

“You know…”

“What?”

“Nevermind.”

“…okay,” Hunk said before an awkward pause made him add, “So, how is your new partner?”

“Ugh. Don’t tell me about it.”

“That bad? It’s the mullet guy, no? What did he do?”

“He’s just…I mean he…he’s aloof and has this ‘I don’t care’ attitude and it’s pissing me off more than it should.”

“Oh. Well, that’s unfortunate. Though…”

“Though what?”

“Maybe he just hasn’t warmed up to you yet. I mean, it _does_ take a while for people to like you. Think of Allura.”

“I’m still not sure she does like me.”

“Oh, she does. In her way. I think. Maybe I don’t know, I mean, it’s not like I can read her thoughts or anything. But you just _know_ when she doesn’t like someone. In any case, I’m sure your partner will end up liking you. He’ll be like your grumpy sidekick. You just have to continue to be yourself, make shitty puns, smile a lot, the usual.”

“yeah…” Lance trailed.

“Lance. Lance, what did you do?”

“Well, okay, maybe he beat me at the arctic power, and now we’ve got some sort of rivalry going on, and I have no idea what to do with it.”

“Oh.”

“What?”

“I am both dumbfounded and absolutely not surprised, somehow. Also, please don’t sit on the counter.”

“It just…happened, you know? There was something about him…it rubbed me the wrong way from the start. He’s just…hard to not notice, you know? And not just because he dresses like some 80’s bad boy, it’s something in his face…in his eyes. It grabs you. He has barely arrived, and he already has Shiro and Allura kissing his feet.”

“Lance, the counter—oh, whatever.”

Lance was not even speaking to Hunk anymore; he was just stating his thoughts aloud.

“The weirdest part is that on some level…I understand them. I want to crack him too, to make him trust me…but at the same time he infuriates me so much, there is no way I won’t be the one to crack first. You feel me?”

“No, not really, but I guess it makes sense.”

Lance sighed, throwing his head back on the wall and ignoring the big pot Hunk had just finished rinsing.

“I miss teaming up with you…those were really the best days of my life, to be perfectly honest. Remember how the kids called you mom?”

“And they called you poopface.”

“Hey! That was ONE time, and it only lasted three days.”

“Still.”

“Remember that time you threw up behind the cafeteria, because one of our kids had puked and you couldn’t stomach the smell? I had to clean everything up, it was the absolute worse.”

“We truly do have happy memories of this place.”

“There was that time we went fishing in the creek and one kid lost his rain boot and I had to go get it. It’s the only thing I ever fished out of that creek.”

“I don’t know if it’s the fact that we do it with eight years old, that we use old hockey sticks as rods, that we use stale bread as bait or that there is no fish there, but no one has ever fished anything in the creek. No, wait, that’s not true, I got a leech once.”

“It’s fun anyway, the kids are entertained. It’s so easy to entertain kids under ten. Oh my God. What am I going to do with fifteen years old?”

“The same old thing we always do. Let them do most of the entertaining, just make sure they don’t hurt themselves.”

“Oh man, remember that time at the Great Game? That time I played the caveman?”

“Do I? Of course, I do. You jumped out of the bushes and nearly gave me a heart attack.”

Lance laughed.

“Yeah…sorry about that. I got a bit carried away. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. I’m gonna miss it.”

“Well, look on the bright side. With the older kids you get the arctic power. And overnight expeditions. Those are a lot of fun, if I am to believe your accounts as a camper.”

“Well, the walking isn’t fun, but the camping sure is. So long as you don’t get stuck to sleep on a root. You really get to bond with your team. Going off schedule, building shelter, going full boy scouts, all that cool junk. No Allura or Shiro to tell you what to do.”

“See? I’m sure you’ll have the time of your life.”

“Maybe. There is still the Keith thing, though.”

“You’ll figure it out. Given how you two are going to spend 24/7 co-leading twelve kids for a whole summer, I’d give my right arm that within two weeks you are either going to be joined by the hip or have killed one another. Hopefully the first one.”

“Hopefully.”

“So, are you going to dry that pot before the air does it or…?”

“Huh?”

Lance glanced at the big pot still waiting for his care on the counter next to him.

“Oh. Sorry about that,” he said, as he tried to dry the pot, his towel damper than the metallic surface. After a subpar job, he put back the pot where it belonged and stretched.

“Well,” he said, yawning. “I guess after all these years this place still finds ways to challenge me.”

He gasped.

“Maybe it’s a conspiracy. Shiro and Allura have hired Keith to test me.”

“And I think you have just found a way to get high on fresh air.”

“Hey! Don’t mock me. It holds ground.”

Hunk answered with a look. Lance sighed.

“Okay, maybe I’m tired. What time is it?”

Hunk looked at his watch.

“Almost eight.”

“Damn, just eight? Nature really does fuck up your internal clock.”

“We have this evening off, so if you want to go to sleep…”

“Nah, I’m fine. I think I’ll just…go help Coran with his administrative stuff, or something. That’ll knock me out for sure.”

“As you wish,” Hunk shrugged.

Lance began to head out, but before he left, he turned around to hug Hunk. Hunk hugged him back, with his signature strength and warmth.

“Thanks Hunk,” he said.

“For what?”

“Cheering me up, I guess?”

“Anytime, buddy.”

Lance gave one last squeeze before heading out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Constructive comments are welcome!


	4. Memories (ft. hiatus notice)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey!
> 
> This is just a short exceptional chapter to tell ya'll that I won't be able to post another chapter for the next two months, as I'm going away (camp counselling...yeah, really).
> 
>  
> 
> I'm not giving up on this fic, and in fact, I'll probably be even more pumped to write it when I get back, as I'll have plenty of  #true stories to add in the text. I know the story was barely getting started, but don't worry, I do have this shit planned (vaguely) and will pursue on it when I get back. 
> 
>  
> 
> In the meanwhile, I can give you some art I drew instead of writing this fic in like the past two weeks, some Lance fluff memories:

 

 

__

_This was Lance during his second-to-last year as a camper. It stays in his memory as the best time he ever had. He won the model camper prize, and his tent set the still-unbroken record for the rabaska race. He met his first (real) girlfriend there, though they broke up quickly though, as she lived out of state and it made it tough to stay in contact. It was also around then that his feelings for Allura mellowed, probably due in no small part to being into someone else and having his esteem boosted by his environment. She was also a counselor by then, which sort of highlighted their age gap._

_The picture was taken by one of his two closest friends in the group that year, as they were heading for their canoe activity. He was a complete geek who had been forced to come by his parents, but actually had a lot of fun due no small part to Lance who actually understood his references and managed to make camp feel kind of badass. The other friend was his near-perfect opposite, an energetic, outdoors kind of guy who hated school and any form of authority (he was the one who beat Lance's brief record for wall climbing). They were an unlikely trio, but it worked, and their ability to find team spirit in the oddest place communicated to the whole tent. They tried to keep in touch after, it worked for a while, but then the outddoor's guy had his bike run into by a car and died, and it put an awkwardness in the relationship between Lance and the geek guy that never lifted, eventually dissolving their friendship. While Lance remembers both of them with fondness, he has primarily moved on. In the end, it only served towards reinforcing his perception of camp altea as an oasis away from the harsh stuff, a place where everyone could just kind of be happy for a while._

_A version of this picture was, and is still, featured in the camp's brochure._

__

_This was his first summer as a camper, the picture taken on the last day before leaving, as Lance wanted to keep a memo of  his friendship with his co-counselor, Hunk. He didn't have the easiest time adapting to being a "responsible adult", but with Hunk by his side, it worked just fine. They were in charge of the 10-11 years old, not an easy age group, but one which they enjoyed a lot once they got to know them. The next year they got paired once again, in charge of the 8-9 years old, and they aced it. In 2015, Lance had been away from camp Altea for a while, and his connection to the camp had faltered somewhat. But thanks to Hunk, by the time the summer was over, he was more than ever determined to come back for as long as he could._

_They took a selfie in front of Lake Aeris, with, in view, the three flag poles of the camp, a familiar and telling sign of where they are._

_Lance has this picture taped above his desk in his room._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, that's it for a while, hope you have a great season 3 and when I get back, I'll make sure to give you more ;)  
> Oh, and also like, giving you some Klance, like some actual, bonding, klance.   
> I wish you all a great summer.


End file.
